Friday, November 13, 2015

I have so many pans on the fire, I need more fires......or less pans! I usually have several projects underway at any given time, but seems like lately I have a multitude of things going at once. At least if I get tired of one, I can move to another.

This is one project nearing completion. In my sewing room I have a shelf that holds 15 tubs of fabric similar to this one. They were somewhat organized by color or theme, until I started looking for a specific fabric and then they became an overflowing mess, like you see here. I saw a note on facebook where someone has shown how to wrap small pieces of fabric around cardboard....and I just had to give this a try. So with my patient husband's help, I began cutting boxes like cereal boxes into 4x5 inch squares and wrapping any fabric less than 1/2 yard onto the cards. This takes a lot of boxes, and we even got cardboard at SAMs that is used to separate pallets of boxes.

The end result is a much neater box which is easier to find fabrics. I finished all the boxes on my shelves, but still have to tackle the containers of solids hiding in my closet.

This was also a good opportunity to purge fabrics, that are now set aside for the "playpen" at the guild's next quilt show.

I used a cardboard guide that measured 5x8 inches to fold those fabrics that were between 1/2 to 2 yards. Anything more than two yards went into drawers, that will also need to be organized. So as you see..this is an ongoing project.

In my hoop, is my spools quilt that I made during the Klosje craze that swept the blogs a couple years ago. I am quilting the top with the baptist fan pattern and have 5 rows done (except for the last block on row 5). There are 8 rows in the top so I am getting excited about getting close to the end of the Baptist Fan part of the quilting. I am still a little undecided about how to quilt the border, but I do have an idea in mind....just have to get the fans completed first.

I love starting my day with several cups of coffee and some relaxing hand quilting. I try to quilt at least an hour each morning....the joys of retirement.

A new project coming up is a quilt for my next grandchild, Adeline Grace. She is due to arrive in February so I need to get going on this one. I designed this quilt in EQ as my daughter, the expectant momma, liked the star and this color combination.

I see a trip to Mary Jo's in my near future! We already checked our only alternatives here in town - Hobby Lobby ands Hancocks. So much for getting fabric with a coupon.

Progress continues on the Patchwork of the Crosses quilt. All the blocks are made, and now just assembling them into rows and adding the border as I go. I have rows 1 thru 4 together and have started row 5. This quilt is a favorite to work on, especially with my good friends Darlene and Brenda. We keep each other on track.

With the fabric left over from the PotC quilt, I have started a pineapple quilt. This quilt will be a companion quilt to the PotC quilt and will be a gift to my son-in-law, Adam.

I need 99 blocks to complete the quilt, and so far I have 35 made. These are machine paper pieced blocks, a process I thoroughly enjoy. My grandkids have fun tearing out the papers :)

And just for fun I have been playing with Prairie Points, which will be a future demo project. These are fun to do and a great way to use up some of those fabrics I have been organizing.

Believe it or not, there are a few other pans in my fire, but I will save them for another day.